THE LONG GAME
Doom Eternal
A progress report on the games we just can’t quit
Developer Id Software, Panic Button Games Publisher Bethesda Softworks Format PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One Release 2020
When we reviewed Doom Eternal last March we had a sense that it would be, like a chainsaw through the skull of a cacodemon, divisive. But we didn’t anticipate the scale or thunder of the cataclysm in Doom’s community: the complaints about the traversal puzzles that now break up battles; about the Marauder, a sort of reverse-Doomguy who harasses players like a wasp at a picnic; and most of all, about Id Software’s growing appetite for storytelling.